How inaugural app mines data

Looking for a public toilet using the new Inauguration smartphone app? That might just land you on left-leaning email lists or solicited in coming years to be a Democratic campaign donor.

Thousands have downloaded the free program since its release Monday by the official Presidential Inaugural Committee, but few are likely to notice that the terms-of-service and privacy statement — aka the fine print — give the committee permission to share their data “with candidates, organizations, groups or causes that we believe have similar political viewpoints, principles or objectives.”

Users at various places in the app and on the PIC’s website are asked for their mobile phone numbers, email and home addresses, as well as permission to locate devices by GPS. Not all of that is required to use some of the functions of the app.

The legalistic language also gives the PIC use of any activity, postings or comments made via the app or the 2013pic.org website "without limitation in advertising, fundraising and other communications in support of PIC and the principles of the Democratic party, without any right of compensation or attribution."

It’s a strikingly partisan side of the efforts from a group that is specifically referenced on the website of the U.S. Office of Governmental Ethics as “not a political organization.” The four honorary chairmen of the PIC, in fact, are America’s four living ex-presidents, two of whom are Republicans.

“It seems like classic bait-and-switch,” said Kathy Kiely, managing editor of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit focused on fostering openness and transparency in government. “This is a committee that’s formed to throw a celebration for an event that should be nonpartisan. Theoretically, the whole country should be involved. It’s a patriotic, banners-and-bunting and parades kind of day. And oh, by the way, if you use this app, we may be harvesting your emails and sharing it with our friends in the Democratic Party.”

“Every four years, the Presidential Inaugural Committee is formed based on the principles of the incoming president and is responsible for putting on official inauguration events for all Americans to celebrate the election of a president,” she said late Tuesday in an emailed statement. “Regardless of party, it is appropriate for a president’s Inaugural Committee to support and reflect their party’s ideals and causes. In bipartisan cooperation and to honor their service to the country, the PIC has traditionally asked former presidents to serve as honorary co-chairs on the Inaugural Committee.”

But Greg Jenkins, chairman of the 2005 Presidential Inaugural Committee that oversaw the second inaugural of President George W. Bush, said they didn’t think of building contact lists for future campaigns when they put on that year’s events.

“It’s not that anybody says to operate from a non-partisan point of view, but it’s thought of as an all-for-one, Kumbaya effort,” Jenkins said. “You don’t try to make it look Republican or Democratic. You wrap yourself around the presidency, not the president.”

The PIC is a private nonprofit created every four years and usually managed by alumni of the winning presidential campaigns. Thus, it’s no surprise to find President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina and Messina’s deputy Stephanie Cutter among prominent figures listed as overseeing key elements of the weekend’s festivities.

The PIC also relies on rent-free office space from the General Services Administration and is, thus, a beneficiary of public resources.